Director Shoaib Mansoor's 'Khuda ke Liye' was the first Pakistani movie to release in India after a long interval. The film shows how in the name of God and religion, people carry false notions and beliefs that disrupt the society and innocent people.
It is also the story of Mansoor, who goes to the United States for higher education in music and how he is strangled, during in his study years, after he gets arrested by the American authorities for his alleged involvement in September 11 crash. Meanwhile, Sarmad, Mansoor’s younger brother gets caught up in terrorist activities under the context of God. He quits his musical passion because of religious beliefs.
There is another character Maryam, who is Mansoor’s cousin and is brought to Pakistan and forcefully married to Sarmad, just because her father did not want her to marry her English boyfriend. This was very paradoxical because her father shared a live-in relationship with an English woman. The film, towards th end, clarifies the often misunderstood and misinterpreted tenets of Islam.
The film has two worlds. One part of the film is shot in America, where Mansoor resides, while the other part of the film is shot in Pakistan and the borders of Afghanistan, where Maryam and Sarmad reside. The entire sequence of the Masjid and the scenes shot in Afghanistan are in sepia tone and they add to the effect of the film. The first sequence of the film is shot from inside the car glass where the barks of tree are shown indicating melancholy in life.
The film is shot in a flashback mode and starts from the hospital, where Mansoor is admitted. The director has also used telephoto lenses in many shot sequences, when Maryam’s father and mother are conversing. The camera panning in several sequences is also commendable. The director uses a lot of cuts and dissolves and other editing effects as the plot of the film is complex and many parallel stories run alongside.
The film has some great music. The whole music sequence, when Mansoor plays in the music school adds to the aesthetic value of the film. Even when the Muslims offer their Namaz, the sound and the music is very effective. Pakistani music values and its styles are highlights of the film. Also, the song that both the brothers sing, with a guitar makes the audience sing along.
The film clarifies many ideologies and beliefs of Islam religion. The myth that Islam forbids music is clarified. The film also highlights the key issue of how people wrongly interpret and confuse between religion and culture.